An exploration of spirituality, self help, the paranormal, love, happiness, positive thinking, life coaching, mediumship, psychic, from angels to zen.

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Everyone is psychic. If you are a conscious being, then you are a transmitter of conscious energy, and the energy that you transmit can be perceived and interpreted by others, just as you can perceive and interpret the transmissions of others. This is the foundation of psychic connectivity, and is essential to your understanding of other people and the world around you.

Whether you are experienced at perceiving the world on a psychic level; or your psychic capabilities have lain relatively dormant, these five tried and tested tips are guaranteed to sharpen and enhance your intuitive abilities…

1. Meditate, meditate, meditate.

Meditation is the first and most important step in developing your psychic abilities. Meditation allows you to know yourself on a deeper level, and that is essential if you want to know others on the psychic level. When you meditate, you connect to different frequencies of reality in which psychic knowledge can be made available to you. There is no right or wrong way to meditate. What’s important is that you feel relaxed and comfortable, so that your mind can move out of the beta state (the everyday brain state that copes with stress, rush and anxiety) to alpha, theta and delta states which allow the flow of psychic information to come to the fore. Meditate every day, even if it is just for 5 minutes, and you will notice a difference in your psychic capabilities. Check out this video for a demonstration of how your brainwaves change when you meditate…

2. Work with someone you trust, with a view to helping each other develop.

The perfect partner is someone who is interested in developing their own psychic abilities; who you don’t know very well, but you know him or her well enough that you are comfortable with him or her, and who is willing to commit to your mutual growth. Take turns at being the ‘reader’ and the ‘recipient’. Having a guinea pig to work with is so useful because it allows you to apply what you have learned from your meditations in a safe, supportive environment. It’s like having someone spot you at the gym…only, for the soul! There are many different experiments you can try together to enhance your psychic connectivity. A good one is for the recipient to transmit a colour, emotion or memory, and for the ‘reader’ to receive the transmission and relay what he or she felt. Another good activity is for the reader to scan the recipient’s aura with his or her mind, and attune to one issue in the recipient’s life, for example, his or her career, and give information about that particular aspect. This is good practise for giving a well-controlled, well-rounded reading that addresses a number of concerns that the recipient might have. When you spend a lot of time connecting with someone in this way, a lovely friendship usually blossoms as well.

3. Practice, practice, practice!

Honing your intuitive abilities is like getting good at any other skill. It takes practice! When you feel ready, get friends and family involved. Do A LOT of experimental readings and as you do, remain very aware of occasions when the reading went well, and times when your readings went not so well. Ask yourself why one reading seemed easier than another. It may be something you can improve upon. Getting to know the feeling that accompanies an accurate message will help you to know the difference between a true psychic piece of information, and your own internal noise. This valuable knowledge only comes through practise and experience, working with many different people who each have their own unique energy. You should aim to get feedback from your recipients. Ask them which pieces of information rang true, which pieces of information gave them the greatest benefit, and which pieces of information they could have done without. This will give you an idea of the sorts of things people want to know about.

4. Feel the love.

Connecting with someone psychically is a very special experience. Both of you are acknowledging that there is some energy that connects both of you, and connects us all. As a reader, your recipient is trusting you with his or her emotions, history, hopes and fears. That is to be respected and cherished. Before each reading, I say ‘thank you for your trust’ in my mind and I really mean it. Do not forget the gravity of seeing so intimately into someone’s life. Three good rules are: If you wouldn’t like to hear it, then don’t say it. If you are about to talk about something sensitive, ask the recipient’s permission. Ask yourself, will this piece of information hurt or heal? Please note: No piece of information delivered with love will ever hurt your recipient.

Feeling the love also means looking after yourself. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep, a healthy diet and good self-esteem will do for your psychic abilities. Respecting yourself and your role as a transmitter and interpreter of loving energy will improve your psychic abilities greatly.

5. Practise scrying with different tools and methods.

There are a variety of methods you can use to focus your psychic abilities. Over the years I have used angel cards, tarot cards, tea leaves, fire, ice, mirrors, palms, dreams, flowers, ribbons and a crystal ball (to name a few!). Using a divination tool has its good points and bad points. The negative side is that it puts something physically between you and your recipient, which leaves room for interference in your connection. The good points are that it can help with building your confidence because you can see symbols and shapes and attribute meaning to them that you wouldn’t have had access to without your scrying tool. You can often see the details of a situation more clearly as it is ‘laid out’ in front of you, and if you find it uncomfortable to work with a person’s energy directly, using a scrying tool can take the pressure off a bit. It’s important to note, however, that your psychic abilities depend upon the energy of the recipient. That is where the information and inspiration comes from – a divination tool just helps you to see it! Ideally, you want to work towards reading a person’s energy in its pure form, soul to soul.

6. Keep a journal that details your progress.

The purpose of this is twofold. The first reason to keep a journal is that you can reference it to see if there are any patterns that could give you insight about your strengths in terms of your psychic development. For example, you may look back over the months and see that you always get information about your recipient’s family situation exactly right. It can also help you to see if there are patterns in the information you struggle with. This can help you see the areas you need to work on moving forward. It also helps you to see where you could make your messages more specific, going forward, for example, you could use your meditation time to align yourself to receiving names, addresses and dates in future readings. The second reason for keeping a journal is that it wards off doubt. If you keep a journal, then you are documenting evidence that you have experienced psychic connectivity. If you get 7 out of 10 pieces of general information correct, that is statistically significant. If you do that 20 times over with different people, under a variety of conditions, then it is excellent evidence that you are utilizing your psychic abilities deliberately and intentionally to obtain the information. If you document 100 readings where you got names, dates and private inner thoughts of your recipient correct, then the odds of you guessing are infinitesimal! This will do wonders for your confidence and self belief which are essential for supporting your wonderful abilities.

Do you have a great tip for developing your psychic abilities? Have you tried any of the suggestions listed above? Please join in the discussion with your questions and comments!

Next Time: P is for ‘Predictions’ : Can psychics predict the future, or not?

I have been looking forward to reaching the letter ‘C’ in my Angels to Zen blog so I could write about the amazing psychic abilities of children. In the ten years that I have been doing spiritual work, I have lost count of the number of mums, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents who have told me about the beautiful psychic, sensitive and intuitive babies in their lives, and I love to hear it. The babies, children and young people that we nurture today, are the teachers, politicians, doctors, nurses and decision makers of the future. Each and every one of us can take responsibility for the care of the naturally loving, sensitive and intuitive natures of the very important children who are currently arriving amongst us. It is my belief that young people (25 and younger) and many who have not even been born yet, are going to be the generations that make the crucial difference to the future synergy, equilibrium and, dare I say, survival, of this beautiful blue planet. I’d like to share with you some of the questions that I have been asked about wonderful sensitive children, as relayed to me by their loving and supportive adult guardians. With each story, I’d like to give you a few tips on how best to nurture the sensitivity in a child who is having similar experiences. Just as every child is unique, the way that they connect with the Universe, express their spirituality and practice love is unique to them as well.

‘When sitting in her feeding chair, my 16-month-old daughter points at things that are invisible to me. She laughs and looks as if she’s following something with her eyes that is moving around the room. She is incredibly amused by this and not at all frightened.’

This sounds to me like an Angelic experience. This child is most likely seeing coloured balls of light that are known as orbs, which are physical manifestations of Angelic energy. That the child laughs is indicative of a loving, comforting and healing energy. This experience tells us that this child is likely to be very sensitive, helpful, naieve and innocent. This is a child who will always see the good in others, she will want to assist wherever she can and is likely to give her pocket money to charity. Laugh along with her as she is telling you that there are Angels in your home. This experience is most common amongst children where the mother has had a difficult pregnancy or birth. It is as if the Angels make a special effort to let the child know that they are safe and protected. If this has happened to your baby, please know that the Angels are looking after them and although you may have had a difficult experience, it is safe for you to stop worrying. You do not need to be fearful that you might lose your child. The trauma is over now and the Angels are bringing healing and protection to you and your child. In prayer, say: ‘Thank you Angels for always protecting and guiding my children.’ Let that prayer help to heal your fears.

‘My nephew, who is 3 years old, keeps mentioning his ‘other mum’ and asks where his sister is, even though he doesn’t have a sister. He sometimes says that before he came, he lived in another house far away, but he has always lived in the same house since he was born.’

Aww, this lovely boy has retained past life knowledge. He is what I would call an ‘old soul’ and has lived in this world many times before. A child who has an experience like this can teach us much. Let him speak. Don’t tell him he is wrong or making up stories about his ‘other family’. Let him tell you all about it, ask him what his last house was like and what his other mum was like. Ask him what colour his other sister’s hair was and which toys she played with. A child who exhibits this wondeful rememberance is wise beyond their years. He will often be quiet and is easily pleased. This is a child whose favourite word is ‘why?’, he has an innate need to understand the reasoning behind life’s occurences. This child may be bossy (because he was probably your parent in a past life, and you were his child!) and he likes to direct, guide and organize. Involve this child in fun activities and encourage him to be silly. He knows the importance of life on a soul-level and that is a heavy burden, he needs assistance to ‘lighten-up’ sometimes.

‘My six-year-old daughter told me that there was a lady in her room last night. She described her apprearance very specifically and told me that the lady’s name was Jean. Jean was my grandmother whom my daughter never met and has never seen, not even in a photo. She passed away 20 years ago.’

Bless, this amazing little girl is a natural medium. She is able to connect with the energy consciousness of people who are no longer in a physical body. This girl is a very empathic person. If anyone around her is upset, she gets upset and you cannot hide your feelings from her. If there is an atmosphere in the home, she will pick up on it. It is better to be tactfully honest with this little girl. She is a worrier. This is a child who questions time. She will ask, ‘when is Christmas?’, ‘when is my birthday?’, ‘how long until school-time?’. Time means something different to this girl because she does not measure it from birth until physical death (she doesn’t consciously know this of course!) but trust me, time is a different thing to her. She would rather do something because it makes you happy than because you tell her to. She is stubborn. When you ask her to clean her room, say, ‘It would make dad so so happy if you would tidy your room.’ She will respond to your feelings rather than the command. When she speaks to you about spirit people that she sees, encourage her to draw a picture of them, and make sure she knows that she is safe.

‘My little brother, who is 8, has dreams every night. Some of his dreams would terrify an adult, never mind a small child! He has always crept into our parent’s bed in the middle of the night; sometimes out of fear, and sometimes just out of habit.’

Congratulations! Your life has been gifted with a beautiful dreamer-child. This little boy is wired deep into the higher consciousness, so when there is something very wrong in the world he will have nightmares; filter that through a child’s imagination and the results can be pretty frightening. This child has a wonderful imagination and a creative spirit. Channel their energy into creative pursuits throughout the day and keep them away from the news. This child would benefit from a Dream Jar. A Dream Jar is a jar to be kept in the child’s room. Every night before sleep, they get to choose what they would like to dream about. Write their chosen dream down on a piece of paper, fold it up and put it in the jar for the dream fairies to collect whilst he sleeps. When the dream fairies read the dream, they will grant his wish and give him beautiful dreams. This child sees the world in a very symbolic way. Use your hands a lot and make eye contact when you speak to him. When he gets a little older, the Dream Jar can turn into a dream journal, where he can write down or draw his dreams. (FYI, I am a dream-child. This is how my spiritual journey began.)

‘I often catch my 10-year-old niece talking to herself as if she is playing with someone. In the last few years, we’ve had to set an extra place at the dinner table for ‘Kyra’, who is my niece’s imaginary friend.’

Wonderful! You have a child of the astral-plane. This little girl has an awareness of ‘other things out there’ generally. Her imaginary friends are imaginary in one sense because she perceives them in her mind, but they are not made up, they are real, especially to her. Imaginary friends can be spirit guides, inter-dimensional beings, angels or people/animals in the astral (spirit) world. The most noticable thing about this child is her understanding. She is very intelligent and she can understand complicated and abstract ideas easily. She may be musical as she has a special understanding of different vibrations. Set the table for her friends, ask her what her friends look like. Ask if her friend wants to go with them when you go out. Don’t put her off and tell her her friends aren’t real. Having friends from different dimensions will teach her to be accepting and naturally able to communicate will all different kinds of people as an adult.

‘My 14-year-old son has this strange ability to know when I’m in pain. He’s never been the most huggy-feely person generally, but when I’m feeling ill or sore in some way, he seems to know. I was sitting in the kitchen with a terrible headache the other day. When he came home from school, he threw his bag on the floor and came over to me and instinctively put both his hands on my head whilst he was telling me about his day. I didn’t say anything but I felt like he was healing me.’

Wow! It sounds like your son is a natural healer. He probably knows nothing about healing because this ability works very much on an energy level without the healer being necessarily aware of it. This boy is probably sporty and active as healing energy is created often by kinetic energy. He is independent, impatient and finds it hard to sit still. He has a heart of gold and will probably do a bungee jump for charity or something along these lines. If you think it wise, tell him about the experience you had with his healing energy. It may give him the confidence to follow a career in looking after people, if that is what is in his heart to do.

These are just some of the kinds of spiritual and sensitive children that you may have in your life. These spiritual types are not exclusive, you may have a child who is a dreamer with imaginary friends, or any combination, they are fluid and can change and grow over time. What is important is that these wonderful mental, emotional and spiritual talents are nurtured and not stifled. As adults, we have no right to shut down and invalidate the beautiful, spiritual experiences of our children. Be amazed by their intuitive abilities: those abilities are teaching them skills that will be valuable to them as healthy, happy adults that have the power to make this world the best world that it can be.

Do you have an intuitive child? A dreamer? A healing child? I’d love to read all about your beautiful spiritual children. Comment by clicking on the bubble below!

Until next time…give a child in your life a kiss and a cuddle and tell them you love them. Listen to them and learn.

It was 2009-2010 and the recession was at its lowest ebb and so was I. For the first time in my adult life, I was without employment. My happiness levels and funds were as depleted as the job market, and I was unable to provide for myself financially. So I gave up my flat and moved in with my sister in an attempt to staunch my bank account’s number haemorrhage.

‘I’m never going to have enough money,’ I thought. ‘I’m never going to get a job that pays enough…there’s a recession, there are no jobs…I’m going to be in debt forever…my debts keep piling up’.

These were my affirmations and I practised them religiously. Day after day, these were the promises I was making to myself. I worried about money all the time, I talked about having no money all the time, and I convinced myself that my situation was never going to change. I was convinced that I was being judged as a failure, but really, no-one was judging me except myself.

I came to believe passionately in poverty, and with every day that I was without a job I thought: See, this is proof that I’m always going to be poor. I didn’t realize at the time that my own limiting beliefs were making a challenging situation much, much worse. I was unable to see that I was lucky to have a sister who’d let me stay with her, and that I was getting to spend more time with my family. I couldn’t see it. I believed only in the ‘bad’ elements of my situation, and I received what I believed.

This went on for months, and my cycle of negativity had evolved into a downward spiral. Despite my negativity, I secretly held on to the hope that I’d be happy again. One day, this hopeful thought managed to force its way into my mind, like a glimmer of light, noticeable amidst the pervasive darkness. The thought that I might one day be happy again dawned on me, like the sun cracking over the horizon and dispersing an inky black night:

What if it’s my thoughts, and not the recession, that’s causing me to feel so unhappy?

When this realization dawned on me, the grip of my inner lack-narrative weakened. Previous to this, I hadn’t considered that what went on in my mind could affect the outside world. But as soon as I made the connection that my negative thinking was causing me to pick out only the events that would justify my beliefs, it resonated through me with the sort of chime achievable only by truth. I knew that for my financial situation to improve, I had to stop thinking so negatively about it.

A few days after I made this new promise to myself, I was visiting a friend in Edinburgh. As I left the train station, I noticed a bright white piece of paper loosely lodged in a crack in the pavement. It fluttered back and forth in the wind, as if it was waving to me. The street was busy, and yet no one had noticed it. As I got a few steps closer, I couldn’t believe my eyes: the piece of paper waving at me was a £20 note!

I picked it up and laughed. It was more than a £20 note, it was a symbol of change. ‘Thank you’, I thought.

****

An affirmation is a proposition that you think or say repetitively because you believe it to be true, however it is actually the repetition of the thought or statement that convinces your mind that it is true. The process that you go through to convince yourself of the truth of a given statement is unbiased, it works the same whether the content of the proposition is positive or negative.

We are making affirmations all the time. Your life is the sum total of the beliefs you affirm. And you hold those beliefs because, in repeating them, you have assimilated them into your consciousness. Your consciousness adapts to comfortably hold the beliefs that seem true to you. The fact that you are reading this post probably means that you have spontaneously made many negative affirmations about yourself over the years. It has taken you a long, long time to believe what you do. So when you realize that you no longer identify with the beliefs you hold about yourself, it can take time and effort to change. What would you rather think about yourself and your life? Give those beliefs the same repetition that you gave the beliefs that you don’t want, and you will harness the power of the belief–>justification–> belief cycle. Having said that, it can be very difficult to change your beliefs because some beliefs are not under your conscious control. The mind is a miraculously complex entity that can hide nuggets of belief in your subconscious or in half-forgotten memories. For more on this, see my post B is for ‘Belief’.Sometimes, positive affirmations don’t work because the new affirmation comes into conflict with a deeply entrenched belief. When we try to affirm something that is opposed to a deep-seated, subconscious belief, the ‘superficial’ affirmation is not strong enough to change one of our core values, even if, consciously, we really want to change. And when it doesn’t work, we beat ourselves up even more because we failed to change, gave up, or lost the will to do our affirmations, and so the spiral of negative affirmations begins again. If this sounds familiar, try this:

To access the negative core belief and bring it to your conscious mind, ask the belief questions. Interrogate your negative belief. Listen to it and understand it. For example, say you constantly affirm that you are unloved and unwanted. On a conscious level, you know that this belief is crippling you. So you choose a new thought: I am desired and loved. You say it over and over, you write it out and stick it to your fridge, and the magic words are your laptop wallpaper. You work with the new affirmation for a few months and yet, you feel very little difference, and any difference you do feel is undermined by a voice within that chases the affirmation with a ‘yeah right, who could ever love you?’ You don’t really believe this crap do you?’ And you’re right back to square one. This will happen to many people who want to use the power of affirmations to change their outlook. Don’t beat yourself up if it happens to you. When you have a quiet moment, write down the negative affirmation that is deeply true to you. Take a few deep breaths and meditate on questioning the belief. Some good questions are:

Why do I hold this belief?

Is there a specific event that was the initial trigger for this belief?

Are there examples of times when this belief was true, when I felt unloved and unwanted?

Are there examples when the opposite was true, when I felt very loved and desirable? What did that feel like?

What does it mean to me to be ‘loved’ and ‘desired’?

Is there a way that I could love and care for myself more to help this new belief become true?

By questioning your belief, you change your relationship to it, and in so doing, you unsettle its ‘true’ and ‘logical’ place in your belief system, thereby making room for new beliefs. This method takes time and effort as you are trying to rewire your mind without the instruction manual! But keep with it, you’ll extinguish, or at least manage it, eventually and when you do, you will benefit so much from a more positive and empowering set of truths.

Some affirmations are easier to believe than others because we believe that some things are more accessible to us than others. You may feel that a new car is much more accessible to you than true self-love. It is only the fact that you believe that that makes it so (inception, anyone?) The only scale of difficulty in embodying positive beliefs is dictated by our beliefs about difficulty of attainment.